How do I smooth out a field.

[Augggie]

I just bought an 85 acre piece of property down the road, and it's really choppy. Overall, the field is very nice (about as flat as you can get in the hills of middle Tennessee), but it's just a little rough for my taste. I wouldn't really call the imperfections bumps, they're more like swells in the ground. They aren't really pronounced swells, and they look pretty natural for the area, but it's a pain when making hay. Or just driving on it in general. I also have some little eroded ditches in my waterways that I would like to fill in.

I really want to smooth it out and give it that sort of manicured ranch look and feel, so how would I Go about smoothing out all of the bumps and swells? I'm thinking of doing a relatively deep plow, disc, and then heavy roll. I don't care about the grass at all because I was going to reseed it with a higher quality mix anyway. So what do you guys think? Don't mind what I'm thinking of doing it. What is the absolute most effective way of doing this?

 

[jeff9366]

Here are some SMOOTHING A FIELD threads from the T-B-N archive:

smoothing a field site:tractorbynet. com - Google Search

This is a weekly information request.

 

[jeff9366]

I wouldn't really call the imperfections bumps, they're more like swells in the ground. They aren't really pronounced swells, and they look pretty natural for the area, but it's a pain when making hay. Or just driving on it in general.

What is the absolute most effective way of doing this?

Give us some estimated dimensions on the swells. Twelve inches, like old plow furrows?

Photos help. Each photo is worth 10,000 words.

Everyone's conditions are unique. There is no absolute, effective answer for you.

"I'm thinking of doing a relatively deep plow, disc, and then heavy roll." For 85 acres a HEAVY Land Plane Grading Scraper MAY be more effective than a Disc Harrow, after the plow. For 85 acres you may wish to consider a TR3 rake.

It would help if your TBN profile included the model of your Kioti tractor.


LAND PLANE VIDEOS: land plane grading scraper - YouTube

land plane leveler - YouTube

TR3 RAKE VIDEOS: TR3 Rake - YouTube

 

[Augggie]

Give us some estimated dimensions on the swells. Twelve inches, like old plow furrows?

Photos help. Each photo is worth 10,000 words.

Everyone's conditions are unique. There is no absolute, effective answer for you.

"I'm thinking of doing a relatively deep plow, disc, and then heavy roll." For 85 acres a HEAVY Land Plane Grading Scraper MAY be more effective than a Disc Harrow, after the plow. For 85 acres you may wish to consider a TR3 rake.

It would help if your TBN profile included the model of your Kioti tractor.


LAND PLANE VIDEOS: land plane grading scraper - YouTube

land plane leveler - YouTube

TR3 RAKE VIDEOS: TR3 Rake - YouTube

I'm out of town for the week so this picture I found on the Internet is about what it looks like. See the bumps in the background.

This is a Google Earth image of my field, and as you can see, there's a little ditch that follows a waterway in the top-right corner of the field and drains into the river. I would like to fix that. And don't worry, Im getting rid of the trees.

Our tractor is a 70 hp, but I wasn't planning on using that anyway. There are some local farmers with much larger tractors to get the job done.

Are there any companies that specialize in this stuff? If not, can I get a excavation company to just bulldoze (or something like that) the whole thing? I'm not too concerned about price. As long as it isn't like an insane amount of money.

 

[rgr33]

The best,though not the cheapest, is to hire a construction outfit to come in with a belly scraper. That is what they use to redistribute the terain before the building process begins. Probably wouldn't take long to flatten it out a little more. Not sure what that would end up doing to the topsoil though.

 

[Leejohn]

I would do as you said, but drag before roller. You have a 70hp tractor, you could plow and then rent a large rotary tiller, then may or may not roll it. The tilling would take a little time, but man you would have a smooth field.

 

[kevin37b]

You need to move some dirt , rearrange it . Plow , disc , roll is not going to help .A large tractor and a couple of pans behind it could do a bunch in a week or two . I don't know what you have for topsoil or rocks but you may want to stockpile the GOOD dirt and dress it after the leveling is done .Depends on the contractor but around here you are looking at $1000 , 1200 a day . Good luck , nice place !

 

[rswyan]

... If not, can I get a excavation company to just bulldoze (or something like that) the whole thing? I'm not too concerned about price. As long as it isn't like an insane amount of money.

That's highly subjective ...

You really need to define a budget for the project.

 

[Egon]

If you want it smooth cultivate it. plough, disk, cultivate and harrow could all be used depending on what is available. After the deep cultivation harrowing in different directions would help. The original sod should all be dead before the final cultivation and seeding. Rolling would not be required.

 

[Birdhunter1]

If you want it smooth cultivate it. plough, disk, cultivate and harrow could all be used depending on what is available. After the deep cultivation harrowing in different directions would help. The original sod should all be dead before the final cultivation and seeding. Rolling would not be required.

I agree with this one, and if you can get to the auctions you can probably find a pull behind 10-20' spike tooth harrow (winged for transport). One of these with as much width as you can find will pull easily behind 70 hp and will do a great job after you have plowed and disc up the soil, on a towed spike tooth harrow width will be your friend.
Or if you have a farmer nearby who row crops and has a big tractor (200 hp or more) and field cultivator let them have a go at it, they can get done in a day what will take you a week

 

[jeff9366]

The soil varies a great deal in broad Tennessee.

Be cautious before adopting a brute force plan which may drag up sub-soil and mix it with your top-soil.

Dig a pit on your property and determine how your soil layers.

 

[EddieWalker]

Part of my land used to be planted pines. They dug some ridiculous channels every couple of feet and planted the pines in the bottoms of the ditches. I assume this is to give them more water when it rains, but I honestly don't know why it was done. If you go down the rows between the pines, you are fine. It's raised and usually pretty dry and smooth. But if you try to go in the other direction, it's a roller coaster of up and down. Top speed on a four wheeler is just a crawl.

I bought a five foot disk and found that once I broke through the crust of the dirt, I could smooth it out easily pulling a heavy oak log behind me as a drag. Later on I built a much heavier drag out of angle iron and solid cinder blocks that acts more like a bull dozer behind my tractor. It breaks down high spots and carried dirt to the low spots.

If I had to do that much land, I would want a much bigger disk. I would spend a lot of time going over the land and breaking it all up. The disk wont smooth it out, but it will take off the ridges and make it easy to spread out the dirt with a drag. This also wont make the field flat or level. If you want that, then you will need to do what the others suggested and hire a crew. But if you want smooth enough to drive fast over, be able to mow easily, and to look nice, then disk and drag will get it done easily.

 

[SPYDERLK]

I wonder if there is a natural subsurface hardness to those areas that causes those bumps. If you have a post hole auger digger drill a hole and see what you hit.

 

[crackerjack222]

A few years ago my neighbor bulldozed mesquite off about 90 acres to make a hay field under a center pivot. He plowed it up till it was loose soil then ran the disk plow with three 16' long railroad rails chained together behind it. Those rails left it smooth as a dining room table.

 

[jeff9366]

Railroad track weights 137 pounds per foot. So 48 feet of railway track would weigh 6,576 (+/-) pounds.

How big was the tractor? What dimension was the chain?



CORRECTION: 137 pounds per yard. So 16 yards of railway track would weight 2,192 (+/-) pounds.

 

[arrow]

I'd hire this out. You can do a bit of it at a time for cost considerations. Several years ago a neighbor bought some land a few miles away as he wanted a hay field. It was only about 15 acres but kind of hilly and pimply as you describe. He hired a large road grader with rippers in the back and a scraper blade mounted to the front. This thing was smoothing out land in 12' swaths and did it much faster than a dozer.
Mention it just for the info as this seems to parallel the concerns my neighbor had.

 

[crackerjack222]

Railroad track weights 137 pounds per foot. So 48 feet of railway track would weigh 6,576 (+/-) pounds.

How big was the tractor? What dimension was the chain?

I don't remember either the size of the tractor or the chain. It was the same tractor he used to pull his baler, so probably about 80-90 HP. He had an artesian well that would put out about 600 gpm and he wanted to use that water to make hay. He bought two tractors, a center pivot and the baling equipment on credit, intending to pay it off with hay sales. Things did not go as planned and within about five years he lost the equipment to foreclosure. I sure wanted to get those rails from him but another neighbor beat me to it.
Now that I think about it, both the hay guy and the other neighbor have passed on so the rails may be available again. But then I am now to old get much use out of them.


You sure the weight is 137 lbs per foot, or is it about 137 lbs per YARD?

 

[bcp]

Rail weights are by yard. It is molded into the side every so often, if your piece is long enough.

If you have a short piece, the height will get you very close,

RAIL SPECIFICATIONS

Bruce

 

[SPYDERLK]

I don't remember either the size of the tractor or the chain. It was the same tractor he used to pull his baler, so probably about 80-90 HP. He had an artesian well that would put out about 600 gpm and he wanted to use that water to make hay. He bought two tractors, a center pivot and the baling equipment on credit, intending to pay it off with hay sales. Things did not go as planned and within about five years he lost the equipment to foreclosure. I sure wanted to get those rails from him but another neighbor beat me to it.
Now that I think about it, both the hay guy and the other neighbor have passed on so the rails may be available again. But then I am now to old get much use out of them.


You sure the weight is 137 lbs per foot, or is it about 137 lbs per YARD?

Good catch. ... I have some track and 137/ft just didnt seem right.

Rail weights are by yard. It is molded into the side every so often, if your piece is long enough.

If you have a short piece, the height will get you very close,

RAIL SPECIFICATIONS

Bruce

 

[EdwardB]

I don't remember either the size of the tractor or the chain. It was the same tractor he used to pull his baler, so probably about 80-90 HP. He had an artesian well that would put out about 600 gpm and he wanted to use that water to make hay. He bought two tractors, a center pivot and the baling equipment on credit, intending to pay it off with hay sales. Things did not go as planned and within about five years he lost the equipment to foreclosure. I sure wanted to get those rails from him but another neighbor beat me to it. Now that I think about it, both the hay guy and the other neighbor have passed on so the rails may be available again. But then I am now to old get much use out of them. You sure the weight is 137 lbs per foot, or is it about 137 lbs per YARD?

600 GPM artesian well. That is remarkable!